Quotessence
Home / Books / Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution

Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution

Book by Thomas Paine · 3 quotes · Government, Politics, Men

Filter quotes by topic

Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution Quotes

“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a nation should apply itself to reform the system.”

“It appears to general observation, that revolutions create genius and talents; but those events do no more than bring them forward. There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which, unless something excites it to action, will descend with him, in that condition, to the grave. As it is to the advantage of society that the whole of its faculties should be employed, the construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolutions.”